Playing for contradances since 1993
Contranella performs traditional dance music from New England, Canada, and Ireland along with their original tunes.
Megan is a fiddler, teacher, author and the founder of Fiddle Studio. Megan started classical violin at the age of 3 and went on to major in Violin Performance at the Eastman School of Music. She also grew up fiddling in the New England tradition with her father John, and later branched out to other traditional styles including Quebecois, Irish, Old-Time, Contra, and Klezmer fiddle.
John applies his piano skills to traditional contradance piano, bringing together his experience as a contradancer, a melody-instrument player, his musical knowledge, and his piano technique. He has developed his contradance style over nearly twenty years of playing for dances in the Central New York region. John can be found jamming on fiddle in the Ithaca vicinity and looking for folks to play some Cape Breton music.
Charley is a multi-instrumentalist in Baltimore, Maryland. Charley plays percussion including hand drums, bones, and foot percussion with Contranella. He frequently plays flute and guitar at dances and Irish sessions around Maryland. Charley also performs with Megan as a duo on fiddle and guitar.